WASHINGTON—Thousands of pages of documents related to the assassination of President John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, were released late in the evening of March 18, revealing details about intelligence-gathering operations but little new information.
While researchers have long awaited the declassification, some are questioning the content of the released files and whether more documents exist or were previously destroyed.
Critics of the government’s slow release of information over the past 62 years suggest that the lack of transparency has created controversy and eroded credibility.
Several documents indicate that Lee Harvey Oswald, identified by the Warren Commission as the lone gunman responsible for killing Kennedy during a political visit to Dallas, was under U.S. government surveillance well before the assassination.
They state that Oswald had extensive contacts within the intelligence community and that foreknowledge of his alleged activities was reported to U.S. agencies by European contacts in the days and months before Kennedy was assassinated.
According to the Warren Commission, Oswald fired a Carcano rifle three times within 8.3 seconds, with the second and third shots allegedly striking the president.
Russian spy officials in the KGB, the former Russian secret police and intelligence agency, rejected the notion, calling Oswald a “poor shooter” and suggesting that the killing was part of an elaborate “coup,” other documents reveal.
Underhill told friends that Kennedy was killed because he uncovered evidence that rogue elements within the intelligence agency were running guns and drugs while also stirring up political mischief, the report reveals.
True crime researcher and author John Leake suggested that the former agent’s tragic death likely occurred because of his work exposing potentially illegal actions.
“Underhill was too experienced in 1964 to make unfounded claims,” Leake told The Epoch Times. “I would bet a large sum he knew what he was talking about.”
“However, the situation remains delicate, since, even with much goodwill, local newsmen cannot afford to let themselves be scooped by outsiders concerning stories in their own backyard,” the February 1967 document reads.
Some foreign governments were also intent on keeping certain files under wraps.
Tensions that existed between Kennedy and Angleton and the Israeli government regarding the Middle Eastern nation’s acquisition of nuclear weapons are a focal point for some researchers who have suggested deep-seated motives for removing the sitting president.
A 74-page document sought by researchers describing an interview Angleton conducted with the Church Committee—a U.S. Senate select committee established in 1975—was not included in the digital release but could reside in the U.S. National Archives.
Other countries sought to exclude their involvement in any communications related to the killing. Australian intelligence agency head Charles Spry requested in 1968 that Warren Commission document CD 971, which reportedly regards phone calls made to the U.S. Embassy in Canberra, Australia, in 1963, remain classified.
Trump, while touring the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington on March 18, announced that approximately 80,000 files were scheduled for release the following day.
A White House official told The Epoch Times that other documents are awaiting digitization and are available for review at the National Archives Building in Washington.
Some files are sealed by court order to conceal personal tax information or for grand jury secrecy, and release is blocked until they are unsealed.
“[The National Archives] is working with the Department of Justice to expedite the unsealing of these records,” the office of the Director of National Intelligence said in a statement. “Grand juries from many years ago have already seen them, so most of this information is already out, but regardless of this, this information will be immediately released upon the direction of the court.”
In total, approximately 6 million JFK-related documents are housed in the archives, most of which were made available for public review following the passage in 1992 of the President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which ordered full disclosure by 2017.
Trump released some of the files during his first term but was advised by intelligence agencies to withhold some other documents.
The Epoch Times is currently reviewing the trove of newly released digitized files and documents stored in the National Archives.
